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A broadband connection has many advantages, not only does it offer a permanent connection to the Internet, but access information much faster and effectively than with a dial-up connection. But while this speed makes finding the information much easier, it has also made possible a whole new brand of services for sharing large files, like video. There are many legal free videos and music files on offer, but unfortunatelly there are also illegal copies of videos and music that one should not download.

 

The Internet has become a haven for software, music and movie pirates. Broadband has made it possible to share large files with anyone that can connect to the Internet. The web abounds with sites where people can download the full versions of software, entire movies and songs. The most common methods used to share these files online are with peer-to-peer file sharing networks (P2P) and torrents.

 

In a P2P network the participants allow other users on the network access to their files and folders. This allows a user to download any files that are available on a computer connected to the network while at the same time allowing other computers on the network to access and download the files on the user’s computer. The users essentially share their files with one another. With a good broadband connection, a user could download hundreds of megabytes from a variety of users in a short space of time.

 

Torrents use a different protocol to make P2P file sharing networks more effective. Torrents allow users to download large volumes of files easily. The protocol allows users to download bits and pieces of a large file from different users connected to the network. This allows downloads to be completed faster and ensures that the bandwidth load is spread equally across the users in the network.

 

Both methods use a broadband connection to share files with other users on the Internet. There are no laws against sharing files with people on the Internet, but there are laws against the unlawful copying of copyrighted material like music, videos, books and software. The Internet has become the number one accomplice in committing copyright infringement with many of the guilty parties not even being aware of the crimes they are committing.

 

Most people don’t think that downloading a single song or movie that they only want to watch in their home is illegal – but it is. Every time a song or movie is downloaded with broadband the people that helped to produce it are indirectly affected. Money is lost and to recoup the costs companies have to increase prices and this hurts the consumer in the long run. Ironically, increasing prices cause more people to rather download than buy the product and so the copyright owners and consumers are caught in a vicious circle.

 

Broadband does make using the Internet much easier, but with great power comes great responsibility. With fast, almost unlimited access to the Internet, many people are tempted to by the opportunity to download their favourite movies, music and games. Copyright infringement is a crime and it is up to the users to ensure that it is stopped.

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